It's Tuesday. Let's begin.
It seems that every few years or so a book series that leads to a movie series about a dystopian world comes along, gains popularity, and makes a boatload of profit. In recent years we have seen the serial books and movies, The Hunger Games and Divergent set the bar for a type of fiction that was started long ago. While not a series, George Orwell certainly promulgated the genre with his 1961 penned tome, 1984. These imaginings put to paper seem to heighten the fascination with what the earth will be like when it ends. It is one of those unknowns that we grow concerned about as we read/listen to the news, regardless of the source. It seems that there is much to be made of what will happen as the world as we know it...fades to black.
The second studio album by the metal band Metallica began as an independent record sold by the record label Megaforce Records, who had to borrow money from European partners to see the album come into being. Two months following its indie release, Ride the Lightning was rereleased by Elecktra records after the label had signed the band to a recording contract. The album has since gone 6x platinum in the US alone. Ride the Lightning peaked at #48 on Billboards Hot 200 and continues to make "top album of all time" lists by critics and fans alike.
Metallica took the album title from a line in Stephen King's The Stand. While only releasing one single, "Creeping Death", the band soon found the track "Fade to Black" with its metal bending guitar solos as a fan favorite, added it to the setlists for concerts where it continues to reside.
"Fade to Black" is a song written about the prospects of suicide as the band states that all of the members were in very dark places when it was written. It joins a long list of songs dealing with the subject including "The Sound of Silence". (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "The Sound of Silence" (Simon and Garfunkel, Disturbed))
"Life it seems to fade away, drifting further every day. Getting lost within myself, nothing matters, no one else..." begins the song which could very easily be an anthem for the generation in which we find ourselves. This despair is not a new thought/emotion. The angst that comes from living in this fallen world has been around since the expulsion from Eden. Mankind has added to the dilemma by continually not listening to God despite His best efforts to get our attention. Nowhere is this more evident than in the decimation of the superpower that was Egypt.
We've covered this passage of Scripture in a differing context with Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Harden My Heart" (Quarterflash)
Egypt was the original superpower nation. Those in power were thought to be gods. They were also a polytheistic nation. Here is a chart that notes the gods in which Egypt paid homage:
Notice that there was a corresponding plague for each God Egypt served.
Greek and Roman superpowers would take a cue from the Egyptian worship legacy as they celebrated gods of the elements with human emotions. (where's my copy of Edith Hamilton?) If you follow the history of these nations with a pantheon of gods, you will notice one common theme. None of them are considered a superpower today.
Even Israel, founded upon the worship of the One True God, when it became a superpower became distracted and began believing in a series of neighbor nation's deities. It seems that no nation is exempt from the temptation to stray from the One who brought them to the dance.
Fast forward to 2020. The United States is a relatively young nation in the scope of history. Celebrating this past weekend its 244th birthday, (for perspective, Israel's national status could be traced back close to 4000 years) the United States began as an experiment in religious freedom, which spawned into an experiment of a constitutional republic that was as President Abraham Lincoln put it, "of the people, by the people, and for the people".
The United States now finds itself in a similar position to that of Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome. It is considered a world superpower that serves a pantheon of gods. What might those gods be?
Open your favorite news blog. Seen anyone worshiping politics? (It is an election year after all!) How about health? (yes there is a Biblical mandate to be healthy, but really a mirror that bosses you around? The Mirror workout commercial) Perhaps there has been fawning over those in the Entertainment industry/Sports. We must include money/Wall Street/the financial industry as being on our list of current gods of the United States. With the prevalence and expression of sexual freedom in the marketplace, it should certainly make be in the ranking. Has anyone heard anything about race? (we've said it before, we'll say it again...we are all part of one race, the human race. Everything else is cultural bias and bigotry, nomenclature folks!) The environment and its salvation has come into the fore in the last 40 years or so as well. (Personal conviction, we should do things that nurture and steward our world, but the earth is big enough to take care of itself. It tends to reclaim itself over time)
If you were to query a 2020 citizen of the United States about religion, you would certainly get enough of an opinion to determine that religious activity is also a god. (seen any stats on how many folks are not going to church during the pandemic/what the effect of going to church during a pandemic has lately?) We would be remiss to mention on our archive of the gods of the United States if we did not mention technology. (there's some really scary stuff out there...I have a bad feeling about this) Power is a god that infuses itself among several of the other gods of the US. All of this feeds into the god of the one in the aforementioned mirror. Me and You. We are addicted to making things better for ourselves and our children that we forget the provider of everything we have.
Egypt in our Scriptural narrative today was an important warning for the United States. Look at the history of the US. Has there been a "correction" to any of the gods on our list of which you can ponder?
All of these gods of the United States are subject to the One True God. He is the One worthy of our adoration and praise. He is also the One who will continue to provide "corrections". But much like Egypt if we do not pay attention, if we continue to harden our heart and stiffen our neck we will quickly find that God's longsuffering and patience has run out and much like Pharoah, the opportunity for true redemption will be over and God will give us over to our own devices and gods. Romans 1:28-32 NASB/The Message/KJV In essence, we will be committing national suicide...
"Things not what they used to be, missing One inside of me. Deathly loss this can't be real, cannot stand this hell I feel..."
At that point, the United States, as superpowers before us have proven, will simply fade to black...
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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